Finally after months in the LA area I was able to schedule a visit to Channel Islands National Park. I say schedule because in order to visit the actual islands of the park some planning is required. Although there is a visitors center and a small beach that anyone can drive to, the islands themselves are in protected area of water and only available via one of the few concessionaire ferries. After some research I ended up selecting Island Packers Cruises. They offered a 4 hour wildlife tour around the islands for only $44 a person which seemed the simplest choice. Other options would be to camp on one of the islands (100% rustic carry in all supplies including water) or hire a charter to do some kayaking, which was much more expensive. Ultimately I am glad I made the choice I did, although I will get into that a little later.

Let me start by saying we arrived at Island Packers to check in 45 minutes early as requested and then drove down to the Visitors Center. Even early in the morning parking was at a premium so I glad we took the early cruise versus the one later in the day.

The visitors center didn’t take long and we ended up waiting in line for about 20 minutes or so. We were surprised by how many people were on this morning tour, but we got lucky and snagged some cool seats right at the end of the boat. Turns out that was a fantastic spot and I didn’t get sea sick at all despite moderately choppy waters.

We were both pretty concerned about how crowded the boat will be but I found it ok in our seat. You could get up and move around (which Lee did a little) but I kept my movements to a minimum. If you are wondering why I am wearing a warm coat in the picture above its because it is 20-30 degrees cooler on the ocean than in the valley where we were staying. Plus it was the first and only overcast day in two weeks and temps were a little lower to begin with. Ultimately I wore a ski cap and had my coat zipped completely up and was comfortable. Lee didn’t wear a coat and was cold.

Not that far from the channel opening we saw a ton of sea lions on a giant buoy. The captain did a complete circle around and we got to take tons of pictures.

Then we had a long stretch of water and went over to where a bunch of birds were hanging out. We also saw our first dolphins.

Next we ran into another group of birds and there was a pod of dolphins pushing fish in front of them. Everyone got into the act including many pelicans, the dolphin, and at least one seal. It was a feeding frenzy and really cool to watch although I couldn’t get many great pictures because everything was moving so fast.

I have never seen anything quite like that and it was really cool to capture. After that we finally came upon the islands and we drove all along them. We saw several people kayaking and another boat picking up people who were hiking the islands.

The kayaking looked fun especially because of all the sea caves but personally I wouldn’t do it because of all the flies. The islands are surrounded by forests of algae and as soon as the boat got even close we were descended upon. Everyone had 15-20 on them at any time and although they didn’t bite they were aggressive. It really took some of the phone out of it and I couldn’t imagine kayaking or camping and dealing with that.

The islands were beautiful though, especially what we could see of the caves and in one we could almost make out a huge pride of sea lions..we could certainly hear them. We also saw baby pelicans (a first for me) and some really cool rock formations.

One of the islands even has a lighthouse and a ranger station which made me wonder what a post here would be like. Talk about remote.

Overall I thought it was fun and I am really glad to check this National Park off my list, but I don’t think I would be in a big hurry to go back. Between the cold, the flies, and the crowded boat it was a one and done for me. As a side note if you do go make sure you take some snacks and cash. They have a small snack bar on the boat but the credit card machine was down so we couldn’t purchase anything. And please do yourself a favor and layer up. If you get warm you can always remove some layers but lots of people were very cold on the boat.

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